“We have been going from a rural or quasi-rural society to an aristocratic society. There’s no doubt that in recent years the upper end of the income scale has enjoyed a much larger increase in income and wealth than the lower end…The victims of our defective educational system are not the well-educated but the poorly […]
Archive for December, 2005
Dec30th2005
Quote Of The Day
Published by in Education, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues) and Vouchers. 0 CommentsDec29th2005
Jonathan Wilde, writing in Catallarchy, puts unions in context:
There are lots of little guys, and lots of groups of little guys, and different unions represent different little guys, and most little guys don’t have any union to represent them. Some little guys are bigger than other little guys. Any special benefit that any particular union […]
Dec29th2005
“The other reason the teachers unions will crumble is the teachers themselves. Against the odds, the unions have been able to persuade teachers that universal vouchers would hurt them. On the contrary, teachers would be among the main beneficiaries. We know that in government schools not much more than half of the money spent goes […]
Dec28th2005
The Wall Street Journal writes:
What the reports tell us is that the vast majority of Americans have not bumped into income glass-ceilings, but rather are experiencing an astonishing pace of upward income mobility. The Census data from 1967 to 2004 provides the percentage of families that fall within various income ranges, starting at $0 to […]
Dec28th2005
Quote Of The Day
Published by in (modern day) Liberalism, Education, General and Vouchers. 0 Comments“The Democratic Party should be the natural supporter of vouchers. In Ted Kennedy’s words, the Democrats are supposed to be the “voice of the voiceless.” The voiceless would benefit the most from full-scale universal vouchers. You know, if you ask the voiceless, they are all in favor of vouchers. So I think, sooner or later, […]
Dec27th2005
The Power Of Public Sector Unions - New York And The MTA Strike
Published by in Economics, General and Unions. 6 CommentsJane Galt, deputy countries editor of Economist.com, writes about the MTA strike in New York:
The union, meanwhile, is running ads on local cable whining that they didn’t want to strike, they just had to because the MTA is so awful to them. This is not true. The union is very hard left, like transit unions […]
Dec27th2005
“As to the benefits of universal vouchers, empowering parents would generate a competitive education market, which would lead to a burst of innovation and improvement, as competition has done in so many other areas. There’s nothing that would do so much to avoid the danger of a two-tiered society, of a class-based society. And there’s […]
Dec26th2005
Even Small School Choice Steps Have Significant Results
Published by in Education, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues) and Vouchers. 0 CommentsThe Adam Smith Institute writes:
Those who make that claim should look at the experience of the US Charter schools. They are independently run, state funded schools often set up by groups of parents in deprived areas and they do not charge fees. The evidence shows that it is the poor and those from ethnic minorities […]
Dec26th2005
Quote Of The Day
Published by in Education, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues) and Vouchers. 0 Comments“Fifty years after Friedman’s article appeared in the collection Economics and the Public Interest, proposals for education reform take many shapes: legally mandated performance assessments at the state and federal levels, means-tested vouchers, charter schools, homeschooling, and calls for universal vouchers or for the complete separation of school and state, to name just a few. […]
Dec23rd2005
Announcing The “Nonpartisan Social Security Reform Plan”
Published by in Economics, General and SocialSecurity. 3 CommentsAndrew Samwick, professor of economics at Dartmouth College, announces the creation of the “Nonpartisan Social Security Reform Plan”:
Along with Jeff Liebman of Harvard University and Maya MacGuineas of the New America Foundation, I am pleased to announce the “Nonpartisan Social Security Reform Plan.” Jeff was a Special Assistant to President Clinton’s National Economic Council, […]
Dec23rd2005
“Among other things, Friedman prophesied that an education system based on vouchers would minimize inefficient government spending while giving low-income Americans, who are traditionally stuck in the very worst public schools, a better chance at receiving a good education. Vouchers “would bring a healthy increase in the variety of educational institutions available and in competition […]
Dec22nd2005
Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist
Published by in (modern day) Liberalism and General. 6 CommentsUCLA News reports:
While the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal is conservative, the newspaper’s news pages are liberal, even more liberal than The New York Times. The Drudge Report may have a right-wing reputation, but it leans left. Coverage by public television and radio is conservative compared to the rest of the mainstream media. […]
Dec22nd2005
Finally, conclusive proof that global warming exists!!!
Dec22nd2005
“[T]he world’s thirst for oil is outstripping the industry’s ability to produce it. That imbalance has driven up energy prices and can’t be fixed through conservation alone. Allowing ANWR drilling would show that the nation is finally getting serious about acting in its best interest by tapping a rich energy source and curbing its dependence […]
Dec21st2005
California Prison Inmates Security Tossed Aside By Social Engineering
Published by in (modern day) Liberalism, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues) and Judicial Nominees. 15 CommentsA friend of mine notified me of California’s recent decision to “Curtail Racial Segregation” in the prison system. According to the Los Angeles Times article, here, “the state had little choice except to abandon the practice after losing a decision in the U.S. Supreme Court in February”. As I have written about […]
Dec21st2005
“Economic ignorance, misconceptions and superstition drive us toward totalitarianism because they make us more willing to hand over greater control of our lives to politicians. That results in a diminution of our liberties. Think back to the gasoline price controls during the 1970s. The price controls caused shortages. To deal with the shortages, restrictions were […]
